Baseball Card Hall of Fame - The Hobby Has Spoken

Most serious baseball card collectors enjoy the annual Baseball Hall of Fame Inductions. It’s an event that just resonates with our collecting endeavors. This concept has influenced hobby content creators to adopt a similar event, the YouTube Baseball Card Hall of Fame.

Inspired by a Philadelphia Collector

The Baseball Card Hall of Fame was inspired by Ray Fonio also known in the YouTube community as RayFromPhilly.

Ray has been an avid baseball card collector since 1979 when he stumbled upon a baseball card magazine which just so happened to be the first issue of that magazine.

When he saw the cards on the front cover he was instantly awe-struck, explains Fonio. Through that experience, he sensed a connection with his boyhood heroes.

Like many of us, Ray’s favorite cards to collect are those of Hall of Famers. For years now he’s followed the annual Hall of Fame inductions closely and has created lots of YouTube content around that topic.

The Baseball Card Hall of Fame

In 2018, Ray was inspired to create a Baseball Card Hall of Fame. Ironically, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York dedicated a baseball card wing the following year in May 2019 called, Shoebox Treasures.

It’s a 700 square foot exhibit that tells the history of baseball cards which dates back to the mid-19th century.

The exhibit displays about 2000 unique baseball cards, artifacts showcasing how storing baseball cards has evolved over time, some interaction that allows you to create your own baseball card, and a feature I find very unique, a bicycle pedestal set up with some baseball cards on it so you can turn the pedal and experience what all the fuss was about. A genius idea and worth the price of admission in my opinion.

The YouTube Baseball Card Hall of Fame featured in this article offers collectors something a bit different. It’s an annual event where collectors vote on particular cards within the hobby that collectors consider as Hall of Fame worthy.

There are three criteria to induct a card into the Hall. First, it has to be considered popular within the hobby. The card at some point had to leave its mark among the collector’s mind and want list.

Secondly, the card has to be considered iconic, which entails the artistic design of the card that makes it unforgettable and nostalgic in nature.

The final element in the criteria is value. Does the card have monetary weight?

Ray explains further, “cards considered for induction DO NOT have to be Hall of Famers, it’s not so much the player but the card that is being inducted.”

How Collectors Can Participate

In previous years the voting was done by video response. However, this year is different, a ballot has been created and any collector can enter a vote. No video response is necessary.

Not everyone is a YouTube content creator and so this ballot will definitely be easier to participate as it will only take a couple of minutes to enter.

There are 40 cards to choose from and you’re asked to only vote for 10! Which ones will you choose?

Equally as important is an old adage that says, the more the merrier. Once you vote will you take a moment to share the link so other collectors can vote too?!

A big voter turnout is anticipated, so please consider and be a part of the vote in 2022!

Giving Collectors a Voice

The primary concept of this event is that it gives the hobby, and the community a chance to put their heads together and determine which cards have mattered the most to us over the years.

Why is this important? Because it gives the collectors a voice. By way of nostalgia, we the collectors of the baseball card YouTube community declare these cards to be tried and true, they have stood the test time and will be considered the best of the best.

It’s about preserving hobby history, honoring hobby excellence, and connecting generations. And that friend is what the Hall of Fame is all about.